In Preparation…for the 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany 2018

We are now coming to the third weekend after the Epiphany. The Epiphany, remember, is the revealing of Jesus as the Christ to all the world…even the Gentiles. We remember this as the magi come and bow down before the Christ child. Every week thereafter we read other historical accounts in Scripture where characteristics of who Jesus is and why he’s here are revealed.

Pastor Troup is preaching this weekend on the Old Testament text from the book of Jonah. People always think of the big fish and people think the story ends with Jonah getting spit up and doing what God told him to. Well, he was spit up by the big fish, but he was still reluctant to do what God told him to do. Why? Because He knew God was merciful and loving enough to forgive and save the heathen Ninevites. As God sends Jonah to the Gentile Ninevites, so He sends His own Son for you to forgive you and make you His own!

We look forward to seeing you this weekend. Take a look at the worship folder and reflect on the prayers, readings, and hymns for the weekend as you prepare your heart and mind to receive God’s gifts.

The Lord Calls Us to Himself by the Preaching of Repentance in His Name

When “the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time,” sending him to preach judgment against the great city of Nineveh, “Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD” (Jonah 3:1, 3). By this preaching, the people were brought to repentance. Because they “believed God,” as He spoke to them through His prophet, “they turned from their evil way” and were spared “the disaster that he had said he would do to them” (Jonah 3:5, 10). St. Paul also warns that “the appointed time has grown very short” (1 Cor. 7:29). Therefore, while we live in this world and deal with it, we are not to cling to it, nor put our trust in it, for “the present form of this world is passing away” (1 Cor. 7:31). Rather, give “your undivided devotion to the Lord” (1 Cor. 7:35). When our Lord Jesus Christ comes and is proclaimed in the Gospel, “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:14–15). Therefore, He still calls men and sends them to become “fishers of men” with the net of that Gospel (Mark 1:17).